JERRY WOLKOFF BLOG-IN LOVING MEMORY OF MY SON STEVEN NATHANIEL WOLKOFF, MY FATHER SAMUEL WOLKOFF, AND ALL THE OTHER VICTIMS OF INJUSTICE, EVIL IN THIS WORLD.THEY DIMINISH YOUR RIGHTS,THEN THEY DIMINISH YOUR EXISTENCE, THEN THEY LIE ABOUT IT, SAY YOU NEVER EXISTED, AND THE PROBLEM IS PEOPLE FORGET THE SUFFERING THAT LASTS FOREVER, NEVER KNOW THE TRUTH BY WHOSE HANDS, OR HOW YOU WERE KILLED.

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

It always seems like the health of our nations economy depends solely on the spending of dollars by the average consumer. This often raises the question in my mind as to where does Corporate America fit into this seemingly ludicrous, flawed formula.

One would think that Corporations, the Private Sector, Federal, State, Local governments should be essential parts of this equation that needs to invest heavily in America, whether it be through hiring American workers, locating customer/tech departments locally, buying, manufacturing their materials here, and contributing the overwhelming portion of financial support that determines whether our economic status is healthy. Somehow, they get a "free pass" by outsourcing everything possible, sitting on huge profits that are not invested here, never being held accountable to as an integral part of helping our economy grow and not being factored very much into keeping America alive.

Every year at this time I am reminded of the back assward way that experts judge how our economy is doing. It is called the "Holiday Shopping Season" and its success or failure is all determined by how much money regular folks spend, never taking into account the impact of all the other above entities that weigh heavily on whether our financial system can survive.

Especially this year, as the United States is creeping within days of falling off the so called "fiscal cliff", no one in any position of Authority appears to have the courage or even a "Boehner" fide interest in stopping this disaster from happening.

The Stores were packed, filled parking lots, online sales were so busy that on certain days there was so much Internet traffic that online capacity was tiny, reducing web surfing to a turtle crawl.

Part of the blame can be attributed to the real potential of the Country going over the fiscal cliff, which apparently spooked enough
shoppers to hold back.

Nobody knows how much money they'll get to keep in the coming year. One shopper stated that he seemed to be opening a lot of socks on Christmas.
Although, have you noticed? Socks aren't a cheap gift anymore. They all
have some sort of high-tech wicking system, special shock absorbing
impact zones, patented open mesh ventilation technology, anti-bacterial
odor suppression.

Founder Samy Liechti describes them "as something the sock
world has never seen before". Critics may argue that they are a little
over-engineered.

Each sock comes with its own RFID chip, which can be "read"
by a NFC (near field communication) device known as a sock sorter, which
in turn communicates via Bluetooth with an iPhone.

As each pair has its own unique identifier, finding a lost
pair amongst a pile of identical socks is as easier as scanning them
with the sock sorter, and waiting until the iPhone app beeps to tell you
it has located the exact match.

For those who really want to keep track of their socks, the
app also produces a range of data checking how black they are,
offering to replace worn-out socks and even finding a close match for
socks whose partners have gone astray.
Smarter Socks which comes with one Sock Sorter and ten pairs of socks
But apparently even buying these socks aren't enough to juice the economy. So the President will be back in town tomorrow to see if he can get a budget deal done in the five days that remain.

I'm beginning to think it's going to have to take another shock like
the stock market dropping 2,000 points to get them off the dime.

"I'm not sure if either side is watching very carefully, and
listening to what the American people think," said Republican
strategist and pollster Frank Luntz in an interview today with "CBS
This Morning."

"When we asked the American people, Who is the GOP
fighting for and representing? The number one answer, the rich. The
number two answer, big business. Back in number three place is hard-working taxpayers. By the republicans fighting this tax increase on
the most wealthy Americans, the public looks at that and says once
again the GOP is standing up for the rich."

The Democrats, Luntz argued, have been equally tone deaf.
"What the Democrats don't understand is that the hostility towards
how much Washington spends, that this whole discussion over the last
six weeks has been about raising taxes on the wealthy rather than also
cutting wasteful Washington spending," he said.

So the polls say Americans want a compromise, and congress doesn't get
it, which is why Congress's approval rating has now dropped to 11
percent.

Friday, December 21, 2012

REST IN PEACE STEVENTime it was, and what a time it was, it was A time of innocence, a time of confidencesLong ago, it must be, I have a photographPreserve your memories, they're all that's left of you.

We had to let go of another piece of you this week Steven, but not a moment goes by that you are always remembered, missed and loved.

Monday, December 17, 2012

Just when you think that our society has sunk as low as it can go, something else even more unimaginable happens, and we discover once again that there are NO limits to the sickness of our world.

26 innocent human beings were murdered in cold blood at the Sandy Hook Elementary school in Newton, Connecticut. Horrifically, 20 of these victims are little children, between the ages of 6- 7 years old. Innocent little babies who have done nothing wrong to deserve their lives being snuffed out so very young, in a school room where they are supposedly safe and protected. They are are executed for no reason at all by a deranged individual who planned this massacre with deliberate precision and detail.

THE MOST IMPORTANT PART OF ALL THIS IS TO ACKNOWLEDGE THE MEMORY THAT THESE MURDERED VICTIMS MOSTLY SMALL CHILDREN HAVE NAMES. THEY LIVED AND NOW THEY ARE DEAD:

It is a parent's worst nightmare to lose a child of any age. Don't
ever forget they we who have lost children are also victims as well as the surviving brothers, sisters,
relatives of this nightmare that is all too real.

There will never be closure for us and the pain will ache in our broken hearts forever. When the loss of our children happens by the unaccountable acts of others, we are even more traumatized, damaged, and destroyed.

There is the inevitable response of a media circus, arguments about the politics of gun control, religions
explaining away what has happened by talking about fantasy concepts of
these new Angels in heaven, a time for healing, when in fact healing cannot ever
come for those killed, nor their families, useless words to somehow try to make people feel
better, and the quest for answers about how could this happen to
defenseless little children, and their teachers.

The explanations, band aid solutions, all miss the point. Soon the forgetful memory of Americans will dissipate the tragedy of this and the true solutions never touched.We are a nation obsessed with denial of "it can't happen to me, my children, my family" and so as usual nothing will change to prevent future massacres. The problem. You want to to know the problem? Begin with the hundreds of thousands people trapped in our culture with no humane
solutions. It's not as simple as there being too easy access to buy guns, that by itself is not at the root of what is wrong.As a Country we have consistently made it very clear that there is a huge disconnect between what is said and that which is actually done. Budget cuts in Federal/State governments have crippled an already impotent, dying under funded system of mental health agencies.The new upcoming round of "balancing the deficit" spending cuts will be the next set of draconian "we can't afford' to help those in need death knell to the fragile, decaying framework of organizations that attempt to help the mentally ill. All the phony hand wringing of what has happened in Connecticut to these children will be shot down by the reality that it costs a lot of money to fix these problems. We always find this money to fight wars in foreign lands but never does it become available to spend it on saving our own vulnerable citizens. But you say, we must provide
an accessible system to address mental illness, just as we are striving
for medical care for physical ills. It's not going to happen, ever.

The stigma of mental illness is almost as strong as it was 30 years ago. Little has changed when it comes to the perception of people who suffer with emotional problems.

This in spite of the fact that mental disorders are common in the United States and internationally. An estimated 26.2 per cent of Americans ages 18 and older, about one in four persons, which translates well in excess of 60 million Americans, not even including those under the age of 18.

We are a Country that is full of shit when it talks about compassion, protecting little children, or helping to truly attack the problems that have consigned us to the lowest steps on the ladder of hell.

It is tolerated that innocent people get murdered and now we have crossed over the line, it will be tolerated that precious little children are also murdered.It is an ugly, ugly reality that only those who live with mental illness are left to fend for themselves because no one really cares about them or even wants to think about.What is it like to live in fear that your child might hurt someone you, himself, or someone else?Liza Long is afraid she has an inkling. In a powerful essay that's being shared across the Internet, this Boise, Idaho, courageous mom of four has the guts to talk about her life with a bright but disturbed teenage son.

Three days before 20-year-old Adam Lanza killed
his mother, then opened fire on a classroom full of Connecticut
kindergartners, my 13-year-old son Michael (name changed) missed his bus
because he was wearing the wrong color pants.

"I can wear these
pants," he said, his tone increasingly belligerent, the black-hole
pupils of his eyes swallowing the blue irises."They are navy blue," I told him. "Your school's dress code says black or khaki pants only.""They
told me I could wear these," he insisted. "You're a stupid bitch. I can
wear whatever pants I want to. This is America. I have rights!"

"You
can't wear whatever pants you want to," I said, my tone affable,
reasonable. "And you definitely cannot call me a stupid bitch. You're
grounded from electronics for the rest of the day. Now get in the car,
and I will take you to school."

I live with a son who is mentally ill. I love my son.But he terrifies me.

A
few weeks ago, Michael pulled a knife and threatened to kill me and
then himself after I asked him to return his overdue library books. His
7- and 9-year-old siblings knew the safety plan—they ran to the car and
locked the doors before I even asked them to. I managed to get the knife
from Michael, then methodically collected all the sharp objects in the
house into a single Tupperware container that now travels with me.
Through it all, he continued to scream insults at me and threaten to
kill or hurt me.

That conflict ended with three burly police
officers and a paramedic wrestling my son onto a gurney for an expensive
ambulance ride to the local emergency room. The mental hospital didn't
have any beds that day, and Michael calmed down nicely in the ER, so
they sent us home with a prescription for Zyprexa and a follow-up visit
with a local pediatric psychiatrist.

We still don't know what's
wrong with Michael. Autism spectrum, ADHD, Oppositional Defiant or
Intermittent Explosive Disorder have all been tossed around at various
meetings with probation officers and social workers and counselors and
teachers and school administrators. He's been on a slew of antipsychotic
and mood-altering pharmaceuticals, a Russian novel of behavioral plans.
Nothing seems to work.

At the start of seventh grade, Michael
was accepted to an accelerated program for highly gifted math and
science students. His IQ is off the charts. When he's in a good mood, he
will gladly bend your ear on subjects ranging from Greek mythology to
the differences between Einsteinian and Newtonian physics to Doctor Who.
He's in a good mood most of the time. But when he's not, watch out. And
it's impossible to predict what will set him off.

Several weeks
into his new junior high school, Michael began exhibiting increasingly
odd and threatening behaviors at school. We decided to transfer him to
the district's most restrictive behavioral program, a contained school
environment where children who can't function in normal classrooms can
access their right to free public babysitting from 7:30 to 1:50 Monday
through Friday until they turn 18.

The morning of the pants
incident, Michael continued to argue with me on the drive. He would
occasionally apologize and seem remorseful. Right before we turned into
his school parking lot, he said, "Look, Mom, I'm really sorry. Can I
have video games back today?""No way," I told him. "You cannot
act the way you acted this morning and think you can get your electronic
privileges back that quickly."His face turned cold, and his
eyes were full of calculated rage. "Then I'm going to kill myself," he
said. "I'm going to jump out of this car right now and kill myself."

That
was it. After the knife incident, I told him that if he ever said those
words again, I would take him straight to the mental hospital, no ifs,
ands, or buts. I did not respond, except to pull the car into the
opposite lane, turning left instead of right.

"Where are you taking me?" he said, suddenly worried. "Where are we going?""You know where we are going," I replied."No! You can't do that to me! You're sending me to hell! You're sending me straight to hell!"

I
pulled up in front of the hospital, frantically waving for one of the
clinicians who happened to be standing outside. "Call the police," I
said. "Hurry."

Michael was in a full-blown fit by then, screaming
and hitting. I hugged him close so he couldn't escape from the car. He
bit me several times and repeatedly jabbed his elbows into my rib cage.
I'm still stronger than he is, but I won't be for much longer.

The
police came quickly and carried my son screaming and kicking into the
bowels of the hospital. I started to shake, and tears filled my eyes as I
filled out the paperwork—"Were there any difficulties with… at what age
did your child… were there any problems with.. has your child ever
experienced.. does your child have…"

At least we have health
insurance now. I recently accepted a position with a local college,
giving up my freelance career because when you have a kid like this, you
need benefits. You'll do anything for benefits. No individual insurance
plan will cover this kind of thing.

For days, my son insisted
that I was lying—that I made the whole thing up so that I could get rid
of him. The first day, when I called to check up on him, he said, "I
hate you. And I'm going to get my revenge as soon as I get out of here."

By
day three, he was my calm, sweet boy again, all apologies and promises
to get better. I've heard those promises for years. I don't believe them
anymore.On the intake form, under the question, "What are your expectations for treatment?" I wrote, "I need help."And
I do. This problem is too big for me to handle on my own. Sometimes
there are no good options. So you just pray for grace and trust that in
hindsight, it will all make sense.

I am sharing this story
because I am Adam Lanza's mother. I am Dylan Klebold's and Eric Harris's
mother. I am Jason Holmes's mother. I am Jared Loughner's mother. I am
Seung-Hui Cho's mother. And these boys—and their mothers—need help. In
the wake of another horrific national tragedy, it's easy to talk about
guns. But it's time to talk about mental illness.

According to Mother Jones, since 1982, 61 mass murders involving firearms have
occurred throughout the country. Of these, 43 of the killers were white
males, and only one was a woman. Mother Jones focused on whether the
killers obtained their guns legally (most did). But this highly visible
sign of mental illness should lead us to consider how many people in the
U.S. live in fear, like I do.

When I asked my son's social
worker about my options, he said that the only thing I could do was to
get Michael charged with a crime. "If he's back in the system, they'll
create a paper trail," he said. "That's the only way you're ever going
to get anything done. No one will pay attention to you unless you've got
charges."

I don't believe my son belongs in jail. The chaotic
environment exacerbates Michael's sensitivity to sensory stimuli and
doesn't deal with the underlying pathology.

But it seems like the United
States is using prison as the solution of choice for mentally ill
people. According to Human Rights Watch, the number of mentally ill
inmates in U.S. prisons quadrupled from 2000 to 2006, and it continues
to rise—in fact, the rate of inmate mental illness is five times greater (56 percent) than in the non-incarcerated population.

With
state-run treatment centers and hospitals shuttered, prison is now the
last resort for the mentally ill. Rikers Island, the LA County Jail and Cook County Jail in Illinois housed the nation's largest treatment
centers in 2011.No one wants to send a 13-year-old genius who
loves Harry Potter and his snuggle animal collection to jail. But our
society, with its stigma on mental illness and its broken healthcare
system, does not provide us with other options. Then another tortured
soul shoots up a fast food restaurant. A mall. A kindergarten classroom.
And we wring our hands and say, "Something must be done."

I
agree that something must be done. It's time for a meaningful,
nation-wide conversation about mental health.

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